Elm Creek Quilts [06] The Master Quilter (45 page)

Read Elm Creek Quilts [06] The Master Quilter Online

Authors: Jennifer Chiaverini

Tags: #Adult, #Contemporary, #Mystery, #Historical

BOOK: Elm Creek Quilts [06] The Master Quilter
6.55Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Her father was right. It had been a fine party, but it was wasted on Mr. Nelson. Dorothea’s thoughts went to the small farmhouse to the southwest where Abel and Constance Wright were finally enjoying the comforts of freedom. No wedding supper, no bridal quilt, no wedding party had marked their homecoming. How much more appropriate it would have been for the people of Creek’s Crossing to welcome Constance with music and celebration, and to allow Mr. Nelson, the convict-turned-schoolmaster, to eat a cold supper alone.

Also by Jennifer Chiaverini

The Quilter’s Apprentice

Round Robin

The Cross-Country Quilters

The Runaway Quilt

The Quilter’s Legacy

Elm Creek Quilts:
Quilt Projects Inspired by the Elm Creek Quilts Novels

More titles in the Elm Creek Quilts Series from Simon & Schuster

The Quilter’s Apprentice

Reclusive Elm Creek master quilter Sylvia Compson shares not only her creative gifts with new arrival Sarah McClure, but also the intricate, varied threads of her life story. As the darker sections of a quilt enhance the bright ones, Sarah sees how the mistakes of the past can lead the way to new understanding and a fresh start.

Round Robin

The Elm Creek Quilters are making a Round Robin quilt—concentric patchwork borders surrounding a central block—for Sylvia Compson. But as each friend in turn confronts a personal crisis, the quilt becomes a symbol of the complex and enduring bonds between mothers and daughters, sisters and friends.

The Cross-Country Quilters

A group of far-flung quilting friends meet at Elm Creek Manor intending to complete, in one year’s time, a “challenge quilt” symbolic of each woman’s personal goals. But as the year goes by, Julia, Megan, Donna, Grace, and Vinnie find their relationship foundering: Will the “challenge quilt” be completed with their friendship still intact?

The Runaway Quilt

Sylvia Compson learns of her ancestors’ ties to the Underground Railroad through the memoir of her great-grandfather’s spinster sister, Gerda Bergstrom. Soon she finds herself unraveling a secret family legacy of discord and betrayal, buried for generations, through clues hidden in the antique quilts discovered in Elm Creek Manor’s attic.

The Quilter’s Legacy

When precious heirloom quilts belonging to Sylvia Compson’s mother, who died when Sylvia was a child, turn up missing from Elm Creek Manor, Sylvia is determined to track them down. As she recovers some of the missing quilts and mourns others as lost forever, she reflects on the woman her mother was and mourns the woman she never knew.

The Master Quilter

The Elm Creek Quilters plan a bridal quilt to celebrate Sylvia Compson’s wedding to sweetheart Andrew—even if they can’t believe she eloped without them. But the bridal quilt is only one secret the quilters are keeping among them, and as the quilt blocks accumulate, it becomes clear the project will be jeopardized unless honesty is once again given pride of place.

The Sugar Camp Quilt

In Creek’s Crossing, Pennsylvania, just before the Civil War, Dorothea Granger’s passage from innocence to wisdom is set against the harrowing backdrop of the American struggle over slavery. When she learns the truth behind the quilt she has stitched for her uncle Jacob at his request, the journey she undertakes tests her strength—and leads her to love.

Circle of Quilters

The impending departure of two founding members leaves an opening for new teachers at Elm Creek Manor, and quilters everywhere are vying to land the prestigious post. But as the remaining quilters begin the interview process, a single question emerges: Who can possibly take the place of cherished colleagues and friends?

The Quilter’s Homecoming

A Roaring Twenties adventure unfolds as young bride Elizabeth Bergstrom Nelson sets out from Elm Creek Manor for California, for what she believes is her new home at Triumph Ranch. But when the couple learn their deed is a fake, it’s up to resourceful Elizabeth to stitch the rift that will allow them to live in peace with the past—and build a future.

The Winding Ways Quilt

True to its form, the circle of quilters at Elm Creek has remained unbroken, but the arrival of two new faces heralds unexpected challenges. As Sylvia Compson plans a tribute to the group—a Winding Ways quilt, whose curved pieces symbolize a journey—will her choice inspire the others to treasure their unique parts in a changing but still-magnificent whole?

The Lost Quilter

Sylvia Bergstrom Compson Cooper treasures an antique quilt made by Joanna, a fugitive slave who found safe haven at Elm Creek Farm in 1859. Joanna’s remarkable artistry sustained her through years of brutality. Now it falls to Sylvia—drawing upon Gerda Bergstrom’s diary and Joanna’s quilt—to connect Joanna’s legacy to present-day Elm Creek Manor.

The Aloha Quilt

Her quilt shop out of business and her divorce looming, Bonnie Markham decides to flee the winter in Elm Creek for a quilter’s retreat in Maui. When Bonnie’s cheating soon-to-be ex decides he wants her share of Elm Creek Quilts, threatening her livelihood and her friendships, it’s the help of new friends—and new love—that will show her the way forward.

Pick up or download your copies today!

We hope you enjoyed reading this Simon & Schuster eBook.

Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Simon & Schuster.

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

SIMON & SCHUSTER
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
places, and incidents either are products of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual events or locales or persons,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2004 by Jennifer Chiaverini
All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.

S
IMON
& S
CHUSTER
and colophon are registered trademarks
of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chiaverini, Jennifer.
The master quilter : an Elm Creek quilts novel / Jennifer Chiaverini.
p. cm.
1. Compson, Sylvia (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Quiltmaking—Fiction.
3. Quilters—Fiction. 4. Quilts—Fiction. 5. Women—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.H473M37 2004
813′.54—dc22
2003061711
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-8307-3
ISBN-10: 1-4165-8307-6

Visit us on the World Wide Web:
http://www.SimonandSchuster.com

Other books

Death of the Office Witch by Marlys Millhiser
The Complete Roderick by John Sladek
The Right Kind of Love by Kennedy Kelly
Charles Darwin* by Kathleen Krull
Balance Point by Robert Buettner
The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery
Cataclysm by Karice Bolton
Julia Paradise by Rod Jones
Jeremy Thrane by Kate Christensen